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Crews working on flood recovery in North East Victoria

14 Dec 2018 Share

Regional Roads Victoria crews are working around the clock to coordinate the recovery of key roads in the state’s north east after flood water and extreme rain damaged and closed major roads yesterday.

RRV North Eastern Regional Director, Nicki Kyriakou said teams of experts are on the ground directing traffic, repairing and analysing the condition of road foundations and surface quality on key roads including the Hume Freeway and Great Alpine Road to ensure safety is maintained as flood waters recede.

“Safety is our number one priority. Right now, we’re assessing the level of risk across the network and coordinating recovery works to reopen key roads as soon as possible.

“A number of arterial roads are closed in areas across north east Victoria and local road safety and technical experts are examining the stability of the road foundation, surface quality and roadside reserves.

“Crews are repairing flood damaged road shoulders, filling potholes, removing debris such as branches and logs from the road, safety barriers and culverts, checking and repairing safety signage and sweeping the road surface.

“We’re working closely with the SES, Victoria Police, Department of Environment, Land Planning and Water and local councils to safely reopen arterial connections as soon as possible to ensure the community can travel safely, but this takes time,”

The Hume Freeway reopened southbound this morning near Barnawartha after crews worked tirelessly this morning to remove cars, obstacles and debris.

“This afternoon we’ll keep working hard to retrieve 80 flood affected vehicles including 30 trucks northbound on the Hume Freeway near Wangaratta. We’re carefully towing these to a safe site and getting in touch with the owners of these vehicles.”

“Two bridges are closed on the Great Alpine Road and Beechworth-Wangaratta Road, we have experts from Melbourne on-hand to examine the structures and crews standing-by to start on repairs,”

“We’re urging drivers to slow down and drive to conditions, for the safety of themselves, the community and crews on the ground.”

As the responsible agency for managing recovery of the state’s arterial road network RRV will continue to undertake safety examinations and repair flood related damage over the coming weeks.

If you see any problems on our roads, please report them to the VicRoads Traffic Management Centre on 13 11 70 (open 24/7). In an emergency call Triple Zero (000).